Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

“Every day, regardless of whether it is an anniversary or not, I feel pain about the captivity of my only son,” Ukrainian Natalya Latiy told CNBC.

She hasn’t seen her son Dmytro, or “Dimka” as she calls him, since the summer of 2022. Dmytro was born into a military family and dreamed of military service from a young age. Since 2018, he had been serving in the Marine Corps in Mariupol in southern Ukraine.

During the siege of Mariupol in the months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022, Dmytro was captured in one of the city’s steelworks. His mother Natalya heard of his capture in October 2022 from a released soldier who had been in the same cell as Dmytro. She has not heard of or from him since, however.

“It is hardest for me on his birthday, when memories of his past happy life reappear, how he grew up, how he was brought up,” Natalya said.

Dmytro is just one of an estimated 4,000 Ukrainians who are still being held as prisoners of war in Russian detention facilities. Around 2,000 of them are known as the “Defenders of Mariupol” in Ukraine, and are seen as heroes for their efforts and sacrifice in trying to defend the city before it fell to Russian forces.

The families of many POWs have no idea of the wellbeing of their loved-ones in Russian custody and are demanding more action from the government in Kyiv after prisoner exchanges with Russia stalled in summer. .

Read more on the story here: ‘I am a mother and cannot bring my son home’: Thousands of Ukrainian POWs are missing months after capture

— Holly Ellyatt

The Kremlin has collated a list of about 30 companies in which it has a stake for potential privatization, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Thursday in an interview on state-owned TV channel Russia 24.

The companies involved were not immediately disclosed.

“The Ministry of Finance has made proposals to the government in large companies where the state’s share is more than 50%, and proposed reducing the share without losing a controlling stake,” Siluanov said.

“There are around 30 large companies where it is possible to consider lowering the state’s share and replacing it with private business.”

Siluanov said that private shareholders would reduce costs and incentivize companies to be more profitable.

— Karen Gilchrist

Ukraine’s air force said Thursday that it shot down 34 out of 35 Russian drones launched overnight on 12 Ukrainian regions.

Russia launched Iranian-made Shahed drones in several waves from about 8:00 p.m. local time to 3:30 a.m., the air force said in a post on Telegram.

The regions affected were Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Khmelnytskyi, Sumy, Poltava, Chernihiv and Kirovohrad.

There were no immediate reports of major damage or casualties.

— Karen Gilchrist

Former TV journalist Yekaterina Duntsova put her name forward on Wednesday to stand in a Russian presidential election in March that Vladimir Putin is expected to win by a landslide.

Duntsova, 40, called in an interview with Reuters last month for an end to the conflict in Ukraine and the release of political prisoners including opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

She submitted documents to officials at the Central Electoral Commission to formally enter the election in which Putin’s victory is widely seen as a foregone conclusion by supporters and opponents alike.

Putin, 71, has been in power as president or prime minister since 1999 and is seeking another six-year term. With Navalny serving prison sentences totalling more than 30 years and other leading Kremlin critics either behind bars or outside the country because of the risk of arrest, there is no established opposition figure to challenge him.

Navalny’s supporters call the election a sham, saying the Kremlin controls who can run and can easily manipulate the vote if needed with the help of an opaque electronic voting system. The Kremlin says Putin will win because he enjoys overwhelming public support, with opinion poll ratings of around 80%.

Duntsova’s next hurdle will be to gather 300,000 signatures in support of her candidacy from all across Russia, with a deadline of Jan. 31.

Putin announced earlier this month that he would run, but no other candidate has formally applied so far. Those backed by a political party only need 100,000 signatures.

In her interview with Reuters, Duntsova avoided using the word “war” to describe the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which Putin calls a “special military operation”, and acknowledged she was afraid.

 “Any sane person taking this step would be afraid – but fear must not win,” she said.

— Reuters

The U.S. Treasury said it would tighten enforcement of its price cap on Russian oil by increasing actions targeting shipowners and vessels that transport Russian crude being sold above the $60 per barrel level.

The cap is a joint initiative between Western allies which seeks to curb Russia’s ability to fund the war in Ukraine. It sees countries signed up to the cap restrict access to financial and professional services to those transporting seaborne crude trading above the cap.

However, some have argued it requires greater enforcement following signs of ships evading the cap.

Urals crude is currently trading at a five-day average of $59.48 a barrel, according to Neste data, but has mostly been above the cap through the summer and fall.

The U.S. said it was updating its guidance on implementing the cap, and “designating [as sanctioned] a Government of Russia-owned ship manager as well as several obscure oil traders who have emerged as frequent participants in the seaborne transportation of Russian-origin oil following the imposition of the price cap.”

— Jenni Reid